Being right vs. being correct

There’s a significant difference being being right and being correct.

Being right is about winning an argument. If your main concern is in being right, then it will dictate how you talk, what you do, and how you interact with others. If being right is your most important value, then you’ll find data that support your claims. You’ll ignore or spin away facts that conflict with your claims. You’ll degrade and dehumanize anyone who is a threat to your beliefs. You will have an opponent and mostly likely, enemies. You’ll probably throw a whole bunch of information, conjecture, straw men, whataboutisms, and more at people — overwhelming them so they can’t possibly respond to it all. And you’ll do it in rapid fire time. And you will probably get a high off the high energy and emotion that being right requires. It’s fight or flight after all. Being right is concerned with winning and might makes right. Being right is concerned with winning and if winning is what matters, then the ends justify the means. Being right is concerned with winning and only the strong survive and win.

Being correct is something very different. Being correct is about submitting your argument to be judged against the truth. If the argument/belief is not in alignment with the truth, then the argument/belief will be altered, adapted, or thrown out. Concern with being correct is about entering into a conversation with someone who can assist you in finding the holes in your arguments and perspective and drive you into the loving arms of the truth. If being correct if you…